Valley Lutheran's Appold Charges On
April 19, 2012
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Sarah Appold’s favorite pitch really depends on the day – and the various options she’s honed during a record-setting career at Saginaw Valley Lutheran.
Of course, there is the old stand-by fastball. The Chargers’ senior also can go change-up. She has a dangerous drop ball. But if she absolutely needs a swing and a miss, it’s got to be the rise.
“I just like the way I can kinda play games with it,” Appold said.
She’s won more than most seniors in Michigan this school year.
Appold is, without question, one of the most impressive all-around athletes in the state's class of 2012. A Second Half High 5 recipient this week, she made the Class C all-state second team in volleyball during the fall and then The Associated Press’ Class C all-state basketball team in the winter.
But softball has always been her number one – Appold holds multiple strikeout records at Valley Lutheran and has signed to pitch next for Saginaw Valley State.
“I played a lot of first base (growing up). But I liked being in control, playing all the time,” Appold said of pitching. “I like being able to be part of every single play. It’s just like playing a game every single time someone is up to bat.”
A decade ago, when second-grader Sarah decided she wanted to give pitching a try, her dad Randy – himself a fastpitch thrower – built her a pitching mound in the backyard.
It clearly got some use.
She set the Chargers’ single-season strikeout record of 272 as a sophomore – made more impressive by the fact she’s shared pitching duties all of her four varsity seasons and threw only 138 innings that season. She’s in the MHSAA record book three times for striking out at least 14 batters in one game, with her 15 in a 2010 contest tied for fifth on the list.
But the number that really pops is the school record she set last season for strikeouts per inning – 2.06.
This spring she’s faced 57 batters and struck out 36 in starting 2-0. She hasn’t given up an earned run and has allowed just five hits and walked four. Opponents are batting a mere .098 against her.
“Just being around her, and seeing her attitude, it’s hard to describe,” Valley Lutheran coach John Mueller said. “Because for all four years, watching her on the mound, she could strike somebody out or give up a hit, and you’d never see a change in her facial expression. She’ll get a couple of runners on base and it’s no big deal. She’s not so worried.”
He saw that confidence emerge especially last season. And her presence allows for her teammates – who together are ranked No. 5 in Division 3 – to remain confident even if they don’t make an offensive dent the first time through the line-up.
Appold also struck out 14 on Saturday as she and teammate Kelsey Schaus both threw no-hitters in a sweep of Flint Southwestern. Appold is joined by another four-year varsity player in Kara Englehardt among a group that Mueller said has shown exceptional work ethic across all sports over the last few years – and no doubt is working toward improving on last season’s finish in the Regional Final, a 7-5 loss to Sanford Meridian.
Appold also played four seasons of varsity volleyball and three on the basketball team. One more run would be a fitting end to an impressive softball career and incredible senior year as a whole.
“I guess I was a little shy coming in when I came in as a freshman. But I had juniors and seniors on the team who helped me settle down,” Appold said. “I definitely feel a lot older. And as you get older, there’s not a pressure, but a feeling of being almost done – and wanting to end the season winning the last game.”
Click for more on Appold and the rest of this week's High 5s.
PHOTOS: Saginaw Valley Lutheran Sarah Appold helped her team to last season's Division 3 Regional Final, playing both first base and pitching in the tournament.
Marathon, Redemption Make Franklin's 1986 Softball Run Eternally Unforgettable
By
Ron Pesch
MHSAA historian
May 14, 2026
Tracy Lectka is celebrating a victory.
In Steve Fecht’s image found on the front page of the June 1986 Observer newspaper’s sports section, she is riding on the shoulders of ecstatic Livonia Franklin fans. Lectka’s arms are raised, and teammate Maria Vasseliou grabs at her jersey. The shot radiates the postgame celebration that came with the Patriots’ 1986 MHSAA Class A softball state championship – an honor that had slipped away a year previous.
Just as powerful is a photograph from the Observer’s Dan Dean from the 1985 run to the title game. Within, Lectka’s father Ron embraced his daughter, comforting the pain of what might have been.
“My Dad was a huge part of my life and taught me everything I knew,” recalled Tracy. “He coached girls softball for Redford Thurston for years. … That was the most hits and runs I had given up all year. That picture speaks volumes to say the least.
“The woman next to me was our outfielder Cherie Mascarello’s mom. She was a huge supporter of the team. Never missed a game, like my mom.”
The Spring of 1985
In just his second year of coaching Livonia Franklin, Joe Epstein had built confidence among his players stressing focus and fundamentals. Lectka, a junior, emerged as an outstanding pitcher, and Epstein featured her constantly as she tossed more than 200 innings. Among Franklin’s victories were three over cross-town rival Livonia Stevenson and the state’s top pitcher, all-state senior Lisa Bokovoy. Franklin finished fourth in the Michigan High School Softball Coaches Association (MHSSCA) weekly Class A regular-season rankings.
During the tournament, Lectka tossed three consecutive four-hit shutouts, but, according to Observer staff writer Brad Emons, “was roughed up for 11 hits” in a 5-0 loss to Mount Clemens L’Anse Creuse North in the 1985 state title game. Played at Lansing’s Ranney Park, North’s star pitcher – right-hander Chris Harms (21-5) – twirled her sixth shutout of the tournament. During that Saturday lockdown, she had allowed seven hits but was “tough in pressure situations.” The Patriots had loaded the bases in the second and fifth innings but could not score.
“We just didn’t hit in the clutch,” Epstein told the Observer, “and they made it count when they had people on.”
North, 22-6 on the year, had opened the season among the state’s top-ranked teams. Harms earned second team all-state honors from MHSSCA, while Lectka was an honorable mention all-state selection. She finished the season with a 22-3 mark.
With an impressive 25-4 record, and one of the state’s top pitchers returning the following spring, Epstein vowed the team would be back.
A Shot at Redemption
With Lectka – one of three seniors – and top players Vasseliou, Cherie Mascarello, Rose Obey, Sue Ritz, Patty Wixson and Karen Schoeninger, the team was the MHSSCA’s Class A preseason favorite entering 1986. That quickly changed within the rankings when the Patriots lost their second game, 12-3, to Walled Lake Central, then dropped a double header to Garden City. A year earlier, Franklin had defeated the Cougars three times, including in a 21-inning pitching duel between Lectka and sophomore Shelly Malone, which Franklin won 1–0.
After some experimenting with the lineup, Epstein was able to right the ship. From there, things progressed with relative ease, as his team dropped just two more games against quality opponents, splitting a double header with Westland John Glenn, then dropping one of three games with a solid Plymouth Salem squad, a conference rival. The Patriots finished the regular season fifth in the final Class A rankings and eased their way through the District. They shut out both John Glenn and Belleville in the Regional to earn a trip back to Lansing for the final rounds.
Speaking just prior to their MHSAA Semifinal game with South Lyon, Coach Epstein was asked by the Observer about his squad’s chances.
The Lions, one of nine teams earning honorable mention in the MHSSCA’s rankings, were led by junior ace Andrea Nelson. They had trounced Salem, 19-4, beneath sweltering heat in their District Final. Following that win, Franklin upset fourth-ranked East Kentwood and then downed Lansing Eastern to continue the postseason run.
“I feel confident that if we beat South Lyon, we can go all the way,” said Epstein, “and I don’t go on a limb very often. … I understand there were a bunch of walks and errors (in Salem’s game with the Lions). I’ve seen some good teams have bad days.”
On the opposite side of the Class A bracket stood Waterford Kettering, a scrappy unranked squad Franklin had beat, “in an invitational tournament, 10-5,” and Grosse Pointe South, which, behind the pitching of University of Michigan-bound Lynn Vismara, had shocked both top-ranked Utica Ford and No. 2-ranked Fraser in Regional play.
“(We’re) a better hitting team than last year,” said Epstein, convinced strong pitching from other teams would not deter his crew from their quest. “And I’ve got some other kids who can swing the bat.”
Epstein’s belief would be severely tested.
The Marathon
“The game began innocently enough at 5:30 p.m.,” wrote the Observer’s Chris McCosky about Franklin’s battle with the Lions. “At 8:30 p.m. in the 17th inning, it was still scoreless. Despite the run shortage, the game (had) produced high drama. South Lyon loaded the bases with two outs in the bottom of the 12th. The Lions put together back-to-back hits in the 13th, but the lead runner was thrown out at third …
“Franklin had its chances, too,” continued McCosky. “The Pats put together three hits in the fifth, but a potential run was tagged out at third. They put runners on first and third in both the fifth and 17th and came away empty.”
Drew Sharp, writing for the Detroit Free Press, covered what happened next.
“… Amid growing darkness at Michigan State, the umpires asked South Lyon coach Jeff Gale and Franklin coach Joe Epstein whether they wanted to continue playing at nearby Ranney Park, which (had) lights or wait until 10 a.m. Saturday.”
Epstein stated he had three players scheduled to take the ACT college entrance exam the next morning and requested the game be moved and continued. Gale wanted to wait. Because the coaches couldn’t come to a solution, the umpires were put on the spot. While the choice wasn’t an easy one, they decided play would resume at MSU in the morning.
Earlier in the day, Kettering sophomore Julie Vachon ripped a long line drive just beyond the reach of the left fielder for a game-winning grand slam, sealing a 4-3 comeback win over Grosse Pointe South.
Title Time
Come daylight, all three test-takers were ready, having skipped their scheduled appointment back home. With two outs in the top of the 20th inning, Vasseliou, the Patriots’ junior shortstop. tripled in a pair of runs to end the deadlock, sealing a 2-0 victory and sending Franklin back to the title game played later in the day at Ranney.
The Lansing State Journal’s Tom Gantert beautifully summarized the Patriots’ weekend in the paper’s Sunday edition. “Livonia Franklin High softball pitcher Tracy Lectka doesn’t ask much from her teammates. Just that they score …”
Kettering’s Vachon allowed two walks, struck out a pair, and gave up just three hits during the championship game. But Vasseliou, again facing two outs, drove in Kris Roman who had led off the first inning with a single. That gave the Patriots a 1-0 lead they would not increase or relinquish.
Lectka notched just a single strikeout, but, defensively, her teammates were nearly perfect. Outside a single error, her infield scooped up everything it faced from the Captains. Only three balls tossed by the senior left the infield during the title game. She finished the day with a no-hitter, extending her streak of scoreless innings allowed to 44. Franklin ended the season with a 31-5 record and the school’s second MHSAA state championship in any sport. Ten years previous, the Patriots had won the 1975 Class A football trophy.
“‘We played awesome. I love it,” a teary-eyed Lectka told the Observer. “This is it.” It was her final game on the diamond. A year earlier, she had accepted a college scholarship to play basketball – not softball – at Wayne State.
Soon after, Sports Illustrated visited the family to snap a photo of Tracy for publication in their weekly sidebar, “Faces in the Crowd.” Over 35 years later, in mid-September 2023, the softball squad, along with that football team, were inducted into Franklin’s inaugural Athletics Hall of Fame.
Epstein, who had passed away in 2012, was also honored individually that evening. He had taught in the Detroit Public Schools from 1957 to 1966 before moving to Franklin. A long-time physical education teacher, he also led Franklin’s softball team to a runner-up finish in 1990. His wife Linda joined three others to cut the honorary ribbon for the Hall.
The induction celebration brought back wonderful memories. But it was noted that a few of the team’s achievements during their runs to the Finals were missing from the MHSAA state record book.
Happily, that has now been corrected.
PHOTOS (Top) The Observer reported on Livonia Franklin’s 1986 Class A championship, including a memorable photo. (2) Ron Lectka, far left, comforts his daughter Tracy after her team’s 1985 title game loss. (3) The cover of the 1986 MHSAA Softball Finals program sets the scene for the weekend to come. (4) The Patriots celebrate. (5) Franklin poses for a team photo after the 1986 win. (Photos gathered by Ron Pesch from Observer archives and Tracy Lectka.)